We are asking that you help us remember Emma today by doing a random act of kindness for someone today. Please read more about Emma and why we do these acts of kindness in her name. Emma’s site is called A Gift From Emma.

Today would be Emma Ivanovsky’s 17th birthday. Emma loved to do random acts of kindness for other people. Can you help us celebrate her birthday by doing a random act of kindness for someone else today? You can print Emma’s pass along cards at www.agiftfromemma.com.

Not sure how to bless someone else? It could be paying for someone’s groceries at the grocery store, buying someone in uniform lunch, to comforting a crying child and helping a Mom with her kids, and being a friend to someone at lunch sitting by themselves. Emma quietly lived her life doing service and random acts of kindness for other people.

We are asking that you help us remember Emma today by doing a random act of kindness for someone today. Please read more about Emma and why we do these acts of kindness in her name. Emma’s site is called A Gift From Emma.

You can print her pass along cards and hand them out.

If you want to read more about what I have written about the grief that you feel when you loose a child, you can see my posts about Emma here.

It’s April 20th and dear sweet Emma, you should be celebrating your 16th Birthday. You should be receiving a Hot Wheels car from us that would have made you mad. We probably then would be taking you to get your license and buying the other half of a nice car because you are so good with money and the best babysitter in the city.

It’s more than eight months later and it only hurts when I breathe or think. I just can’t believe that you are gone, but you really are gone. I miss seeing you every morning at 5:20 and driving you to early morning Bible study. I miss all of our car rides together. The rides to school, to practice, to tournaments and anywhere else you wanted to go. I miss you punching me in the arm and yelling Slug Bug. You actually had started to hurt me, but I wasn’t gonna let you know!

I miss coaching you from the stands even if I am not supposed to. I miss watching you play softball, it’s really hard this time of year. You should be having fun with your teammates and who knows maybe even starting on Varsity this year.

I miss you getting off the bus at the “Littles” school so you could see them, even if you did pretended to just want to get off the bus as fast as she could.

I miss your humor. I miss your sarcasm. I miss your kindness. I miss you pretending you didn’t like attention or other humans in your house. You were so good with the kids and they miss you so much, all of them, they all miss you. Yes, even Tucker and Paige.

We all miss you, so please stay as close as you can. We try to honor your memory the best we can, I hope you are proud of us. I hope that people remember you and what you stand for every time they eat a tootsie Roll or a pair of Converse, every time they hear a song from your playlist or a random act of kindness #forourEmma.

I wish I could write as well as Mom but I hope you get the message that we love you and think about you all of the time. I pray every day that we can feel you with us and ask Heavenly Father to let you watch over the Littles from Heaven.

I am having a really hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit, truth be told I wish it all would just go by as fast as it can. I know it isn’t the right way to feel and it absolutely is not what Emma would have wanted. She loved Christmas time, she loved doing things for others and she loved giving gifts.

I am challenging myself STARTING SATURDAY December 12 to do 13 Days of Christmas Giving to honor my beautiful Emma and kick my butt into gear. I am going to PRINT MY KINDNESS cards and for the next thirteen days I am going to do something nice for a total stranger. It can be something as simple as mowing a neighbors lawn to paying for someone’s meal or picking a family in need and help them have a Merry Christmas. I don’t know what kind of crazy ideas will come to me but I promise it will be fun and hopefully uplifting. Please follow me for the next 13 days which will end on Christmas Eve!

Day 4- Gingerbread Houses and Christmas Carols for the Seniors!

Tiff and the kids from church delivered the gingerbread houses and sang Christmas Carols for a group of new friends at the senior center. ‪#‎ForOurEmma‬‪#‎13DayChristmasChallenge‬ I am a day behind reporting but I have something fun from today I will post in a bit! Join me or just follow along!

Day 3- Helped pay for dinner for some families, one was wearing this sweatshirt.We went out to eat tonight to this amazing burger place, it was just one of those nights we didn’t feel like cooking. I made this really nice lady wait extra long in line which happens quite often when you have a big family. We weren’t able to deliver the gingerbread houses tonight because some of our kids had coughs and I didn’t want to go visit the seniors and get them sick. As a result I hadn’t done my challenge yet today, so I thought I would buy their dinner. I handed her one of Emma’s cards and paid for her food. she immediately said thank you so much and gave me a big hug. I went to my table feeling really good about what it just happened and my kids asked me why that lady hugged me. I hadn’t told them about the 13 day challenge yet because it’s still really hard for me to talk about and I didn’t want to put any pressure on them. So we explained what we were doing and right as we finish this family walked in and a girl about Emmas age was wearing the sweatshirt in this picture. My kids immediately noticed this family in the sweatshirt and could tell that these parents had lost their son and the sister had lost her brother. As we were leaving I handed them a gift card with one of Emma’s cards and said that I had read her sweatshirt and that Emma wanted her to have this gift. The girl was surprised and said thank you so much, I didn’t realize it was her mom sitting next to her but I knew exactly who it was it’s soon as she started crying. I looked back and I could see your eyes, I know that feeling and I know that look and my heart just broke for her. I don’t know why anyone has to feel this pain, is the worst thing in the world. I hope that we made their day just a little bit brighter.

DAY 2- Gingerbread Cheer for Friends, Family and Seniors!

This is Day 2 of the Emma’s Christmas Giving Challenge. We had an open house for people to come over and make Gingerbread Houses. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions, Tiffany puts out an amazing spread and pre makes over 100 houses with some help from the kids and her mom this year. We take our finished houses to senior communities and visit “grandmas and grandpas” then leave them when some holiday cheer. We will do that tomorrow night.

DAY 1- Paige & her Basketball Team

Paige has a basketball tournament this weekend, she saw this sign and asked what it was about. There is a girl at this school that is battling cancer and they are selling shirts to help support her family. I love that she gets what it is all about.

I would love it if you all would join me and help build Christmas Spirit in your area in Emma’s memory and SHARE YOUR STORY on the A Gift From Emma website. I am also going to add some incentive to get you guys to join me in my 13 Days of Christmas Giving Challenge. Each day I will pick someone to win a small gift, but that is not where the real incentive comes in, at the end of 13 days I am going to pick a family and donate $250 to their local food panty or library in their family’s name.

Please join me and share the Christmas Spirit, even if you don’t start on day one, jump on board. All you have to do is set your mind to it and then PRINT YOUR CARDS! Then, SHARE YOUR STORY!

Today I went and saw my Emma. Emma is still beautiful and however difficult it is me to see her like that, I am still grateful for the blessing of such a good person in my life. I can’t tell you how bad it hurts to see her lying there, to know that we are going to miss all of the amazing things she was going to do and be. She was so good, I can’t believe she is gone, I can’t believe it is real.

After making all the arrangements (picking the casket was unbearable) to bring my baby home I realized I hadn’t found her charm bracelet (she never takes it off) I went to my aunt’s house to search where the accident happened to see if I could bring it home to her mom and sisters. I couldn’t stay at the place where my Emma was taken from me and thankfully I found out shortly after that Emma left it home knowing home much work she was going to do and so she didn’t lose it anywhere on the ranch.

Today was the hardest day of my life, but probably not the hardest day I will have. In a couple hours I will board a plane with our girl and bring her home. As of right now there will be a viewing on Sunday night at Forest Park in The Woodlands from 5-8 pm (family from 4-5) the services will be Monday at 2:00 pm
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
25623 Richards Rd, Spring, TX 77386
Grave ceremony will be at Forest Park Mortuary.